Basel, Switzerland is home to Art Basel, the most prestigious contemporary art fair in the world. Art elitists and enthusiast descend on this city every year to check out who is hot and bucking the trend. This year an expected 55,000 people will show up to attend this week long event.
Switzerland and Austria are set to host the European Cup this year, which runs every 4 years with 2 years between it and the World Cup. Funny enough, it is scheduled to kick off in Basel during the middle of Art Basel, with the Swiss and Czech national teams facing off to begin the Cup. Now I don’t know who thought this would be a good idea, or just didn’t think about the combination of soccer fans and art patrons, but sure brings a smile to my face. One can only imagine the ambiance surrounding this town during those tense couple of days.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the art people blame the soccer fans for the incredibly high hotel rates, have forced the hoteliers and city officials to choose sides, and are commandeering all the restaurants with advanced reservations and special favors. The city has been divided into “fan zones” took keep the groups from tearing each other apart, and the UEFA authorities have turned over their “hooligan database” to the Basel officials. Now that is serious.
In an effort to show some respect, shall we say, to the soccer community, the fair will have a party for VIPs so they can watch the game, as well as several soccer themed art videos. From what I understand so far, it’s more of the community and hotel establishments that are having a problem with the two events overlapping. They should be ecstatic about all the bank they are about to make and have a little faith in people. I plan on keeping up to date with this situation, so I’ll be sure to inform you if anything interesting happens!
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